Overstock.com is changing its name to Bed Bath & Beyond.
The online furniture and home furnishings retailer announced Wednesday in a news release that it would ditch its existing name for the new moniker after successfully acquiring the iconic brand’s intellectual property assets for $21.5 million through a supervised bankruptcy process.
Securing the Bed Bath & Beyond brand’s high consumer awareness and vast customer database, among other intellectual property, could be a significant and transformative step for the company, which would help lift sagging sales, according to Jonathan Johnson, CEO of Overstock.com.
“Bed Bath & Beyond is an iconic consumer brand, well-known in the home retail marketplace,” claimed Johnson in the news release. “The combination of our winning asset-light business model and the high awareness and loyalty of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand will improve the customer experience and position the Company for accelerated market share growth.”
Overstock.com plans on combining its asset-light business model with the well-known Bed Bath & Beyond brand, adopting the Bed Bath & Beyond domain name and re-branding its Club O loyalty program as “Welcome Rewards.”
“Combining the strengths of the Overstock operational model and the Bed Bath & Beyond brand will create a powerful synergy,” Johnson said. “I’m excited for consumers to experience the new Bed Bath and an even bigger and better Beyond.”
The Bed Bath & Beyond assets acquired by Overstock.com include website and domain names, trademarks, tradenames, patents, customer databases, loyalty program data, and other brand assets. However, the acquisition excludes any assets associated with Bed Bath & Beyond’s brick-and-mortar business, including store leases, inventory, warehouses, and logistics infrastructure.
The buybuy BABY and Harmon banners, subsidiaries of Bed Bath & Beyond, are also excluded from the acquisition. The bankruptcy auction for buybuy BABY’s brand and assets began on Wednesday, following Overstock.com’s successful bid for Bed Bath & Beyond.
Even though parents still shop at physical stores like buybuy BABY, the future of brick-and-mortar shopping is uncertain, according to Neil Saunders, managing director for retail at GlobalData consultancy.
“It’s a competitiveness question,” Saunders said, according to NBC News. “There’s no doubt that people still buy baby stuff from physical stores, but you can do that at a lot of places — and a lot are very sharp on price and super convenient, including for parents.”
Overstock.com plans to re-launch the Bed Bath & Beyond domain in Canada and re-launch a refreshed website, mobile app, and loyalty program in the United States in the coming weeks. The Utah-based retailer’s rebranded loyalty program will continue to offer 5% reward dollars “for all purchases that can be fully redeemed in subsequent transactions.”
The company’s shares (NASDAQ: OSTK) jumped nearly 5% in extended trading and were traded around $30.30 on Thursday following news of the acquisition, up more than 30% from a 52-week low of $17.05.
